Camel

By: Robert Fay

Source:

 Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience, Second Edition

Camel

Domesticated animal uniquely suited for desert transport.

The species of camel found in Africa is the one-humped Arabian camel, the dromedary. Called ships of the desert, dromedaries stand 2 meters (6.5 feet) tall at the shoulder and weigh 700 kilograms (1,545 pounds). Humans domesticated the intelligent and docile dromedary before 3000 B.C.E., but it was not until at least the seventh century B.C.E. that they were used widely in Egypt. For the next several centuries, camels were vital to trade between North Africa and the ancient savanna empires of Ghana, Mali, and Songhai, because wheeled carts could not cross the Sahara desert. Today the camel remains important to the nomads of the Sahara, who use them both for transportation and as pack animals, and also for their milk, meat, hide, hair (for wool), and dried manure (for fuel).

Specially adapted to desert conditions, camels have small, hairy ears, two rows of eyelashes, and closing nostrils to keep out sand and dust. They have two coats: a hairy outer coat and a dense undercoat, which insulates them against desert heat during the day and cold during the night and in winter. Camels store fat in their humps, and in times of scarcity, can use this fat for sustenance or to produce water through oxidization. Camels can go several days without eating or drinking. They can lose as much as 25 percent of their body weight without ill effects because they can replace this lost weight by drinking up to one hundred liters (more than twenty-five gallons) of water in minutes. In addition, their mouths are specially adapted to eat nutrient-poor foods that other animals cannot eat, such as the thorns from acacia trees.

Scientific classification:

Camels belong to the family Camelidae. They make up the genus Camelus. The Arabian camel is classified as Camelus dromedarius.

See also Animals in Africa.

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